The Battle of Fredericksberg

On November 7th of 1862, President Lincoln had had enough of General McClellan’s incompetence. He relived him of his command and turned it over to General Ambrose Burnside. Burnside planned to take Richmond, the confederate capitol, by Fredericksburg. After getting his plan approved, his army of 115,000 went to Fredericksburg and arrived on November 11th. The Confederate camp in Fredericksburg had only a few thousand defenders. But Burnside could not attack because the pontoon bridge equipment has not arrived. General Robert E. Lee took advantage of this delay and reinforced the confederate positions at

Fredericksburg. Now the Confederates had 78,000 troops at Fredericksburg. The equipment arrived and Burnside’s army crossed into Fredericksburg on December 11th. The Confederates fell back from the town. The Union troops started to loot the evacuated town.

On December 13th Burnside decided to launch an attack that would drive back Lee’s force from some hills just outside Fredericksburg. The main attack took place south of the city. Confusion, bad leadership, and misunderstandings by the Commander of the Federal left, Major General William B. Franklin, broke the attacking force into two smaller divisions. Major General George G. Meade was leading to attack and Major General John Gibbon was General Meade’s support. Meade sighted and broke through a week point in the Confederacy’s line. This resulted in heavy losses. General Jackson’s troops destroyed